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7/29/2019 ENGL 112 Nussbaum Response (1)
1/1
Save Humanity!
Vincent Li
Our task is to educate [the students'] whole being so they can face the future, wrote educational
reformist and author ofThe Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes EverythingSir Ken Robinson.
This passionate advisor on education explicitly suggests that we are residing in perturbed times where
society blindly yearns for graduates who complete technical programs - pursuing a practical degree that
society wants rather than a thoughtful degree which the student is impassioned. In line with the thoughts
of Mr. Robinson is Professor Nussbaum, a University of Chicago philosopher, who states in a recent
interview that what were getting now is the demand for a quick fix for economic problems using highly
applied technical skills. Consequentially, the age-old study of original endeavours and liberal arts issuppressed - or worse, neglected altogether - by world leaders. The evident issue is that these technical
degrees generally lack the aspect of critical thinking which studies in humanities accentuate, leaving the
bright minds of tomorrow rich with information but insufficiently funded in the bank of curious thoughts.
These bright minds have influences from many external sources including the current social order,
job prospects, and parental impact. Social order illustrates to students that politicians...are demanding a
greater share of the global economy and are demanding more technical education. Ambitiously, students
dash towards that attractive neon green ball on their all-fours - as society yells fetch - only to returnwhat the students have so diligently worked towards back into the hands of authority figures. This,
unfortunately, hinders students from attaining full potential in a field which they ardently gravitate
towards. Parents want their children to get ahead by cut[ting] the arts and focus[ing] on useful
marketable skills. In result, the leash around students' necks is pulled increasingly taut. Moreover, the
dog trainers are whipped whenever the owners or society is dissatisfied. Society and parental figures
rarely compensate enough in resolution of such a message communicated, sometimes forcibly drilled,
deep within the minds of students.
Indeed, the responsibility is placed on parents and the society to recognize that this world cannot
exist effectively based solely on marketable skills, that operation requires more than simple formulae and
methods of processing, that studies of thoughtful arguments which constructively criticize are essential to
the psychological survival of humanity. Their task is to educate the students whole being so they can face
the future.